BY BENEDICT NWACHUKWU, ABUJA
Former national chairman of the ruling All Progressive Congress (APC), Hilliard Itah, has warned his party against handling the threat of the presidential candidate of Labour Party (LP), Peter Obi, who has become a hero among the Nigerian youths, with levity, adding that his emergence is a paradigm which the ruling party must deal with in the 2023 general election.
Speaking with newsmen on Tuesday at the Buhari House National Secretariat of the party, Itah said Nigerian youths are angry and rightly so, hence the ruling party must find ways to address the concerns of the youths ahead of 2023.
In addition, the former Chairman warned that Nigeria is a youthful country, which makes it imperative for APC to consider the disenchantment of the youths in governance.
Speaking on the threats of Peter Obi and Datti Baba-Ahmed, Itah said “Obi is a paradigm that APC needs to deal with. But I will tell you this. The APC is very happy to have Obi around because he is eating up the PDP votes in the South East and the South South. He is just leaving the APC and the Labour Party to contest the votes in the South East and South South.
“Obi is also very popular in the metropolitan Abuja and Lagos. But besides that, in the rural areas of Nigeria, nobody knows him. You go to Zungeru or Zangon Kattaf, and ask who Obi is, and probably most people in those localities mistake him for a trader somewhere. But, he is a phenomenon in the South South and South East, metropolitan Abuja and Lagos, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube”, he said.
In addition, he said “The youths are angry, and they have every right to be angry, but unfortunately for the youths, they have been looking for a hero, and they have found in Peter Obi a hero, but it is sad because Peter Obi is the antithesis of everything the youths should be looking for, but they have found him and that is why I said APC should be looking at a new paradigm.
“The party needs to look at the concerns of the youths. It is very important because Nigeria is a very youthful country. We need to create jobs for those who are going to school. We need to give those who are going to school quality education, we need to advance the course of health in such a way that people that are born tomorrow will not suffer the indignity of lack of health facilities that those who are born today are suffering.”
However, speaking on the enormity of threats which the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) poses to APC ahead of the 2023 general election, Itah said “Atiku Abubakar is an old customer, we have dealt with the issue of Atiku Abubakar for a long time and we are going to deal with his issue once again. He comes with no new tricks, we know his tricks and we are going to deal with that politically”.
He said further that it would be a disaster of monumental proportions if Tinubu were not to be the next President of Nigeria, adding, “But we do not have any apprehension as to whether he will lose. We are waiting for the work to start in September and we are also waiting for the elections to commence in February, and by the Grace of God, we shall be witnessing the swearing in of Tinubu as the President of Nigeria.
“I have no doubts at all, I know that our work is cut out for us, it is not going to be walk in the park, we have a new paradigm that we must deal with. We have new issues in Nigeria that we must deal with.
“Some of us see an emerging new Nigeria where the citizens will have the opportunity and seize the opportunity to call out leaders and ask for accountability. This is the Nigeria that we have dreamt of and that Nigeria is birthing and we will all participate in making sure that the birth of that Nigeria is without so many birth pangs so as to emerge without fragmenting the nation”, he said.
